The Birth of a Field: Digital Media and Learning

That's my avatar, I'm live blogging from Second Life. That's Danah Boyd in RL who was also live blogging the event.  Photo from public photos tagged with macarthur in NMC flickr stream.

This morning I attended the MacArthur Foundation Digital Learning briefing that was taking place at the Natural History Museum in NYC.  It was the ultimate digital media multi-tasking experience.

From my office in the Boston,  I teleported myself into the Virtual World of Second Life and headed straight for the New Media Consortium virtual campus where I joined about 65 other avatars representing educators from all over the world (even Austrailia where it was 3:00 a.m. local time).  I also had a web browser window open so I could watch the videocast of event.  While the speakers were talking, the avatars in Second Life were carrying on a lively debate in chat about the points raised, suggesting questions to be asked in the room in New York City, and passing along urls/resources related to the discussion at hand.

Several avatars were also in "real life" in New York City.  In fact,  my colleague Rik Riel IM me and asked for a teleport into the location.  He was also in NYC and live blogging the event as was Danah Boyd - the official MacArthur Foundation live blogger.  At the end, when asked what it was like to be live blogging the event, Danah observed that she took a lot of notes that no one would want to read unless they put into context.  "As a blogger, one issue is 'who is reading?' and I have to put this into context for people who were not at this event and may have only heard of the MacArthur Foundation on NPR."

This was a rich conversation and was not able to capture all the details as my audio faded in and out and was multi-tasking in a major way, so here is what I as able to capture...

• The MacArthur Foundation announced that it will be funding a five-year $50 million initiative, mostly for research, to try to understand how young people are using digital media and its impact learning.  As the president of the MacArthur Foundation noted, "It is the beginning of a new cross interdisciplinary field and we all feel it."   At that comment, all the avatars started clapping, cheering, and agreeing with quips like "Wow, MacArthur Foundation really gets it.  They are walking the walk, talking the talk."
• Some statistics about how many young people are using various social media tools.  But it was pointed out that there is a lot known about the numbers and less is known about how they are using, the role it plays, and what it means to them.  The environment for learning is no longer in the classroom and its online, and outside of school.  MacArthur wants to know:  How is digital media changing the way that children learn and develop and what are the implications?

• Digital media is being shaped by the private sector (YouTube, MySpace, etc).  These social networking spaces are becoming the place where a lot of (informal) learning by young people is taking place.   Educators need to intervene and make creative alliances.

• There is a huge gap in understanding between what young people are doing with social media spaces and what adults perceive.(The opening presentation showed kids talking about how they social media and adults misconceptions ..)   It isn't entertainment.   These are complex learning environments where young people are making decisions, learning and collaborating with peers, etc.  Learning is happening outside of school and it needs to be understood better.

• Henry Jenkins notes that it isn't about the tools and that it was more about the culture growing up around the technology.  "We are in a moment of time where 57% of teens produce and share media.   Media isn't just happening to kids.  We should be   more concerned with what our kids are doing with media.  Also, not all kids are digital natives." 

• He described a new digital divide that wasn't about having access to computers.  Young people have access to computers in schools and libraries, but there is a difference in the quality of experience.  There is a gap in social skills, experience, and knowledge when you only have 10-15 minutes of access in library versus 24/7 access at home.  The young people who don't have pervasive access will fall behind in terms of skills. 

• He warned that parents and educators do not need to be looking over the shoulders of young people and that we shouldn't be leading by fear and anxiety, but my knowledge and information.  He noted that media literacy has to be integrated as a skill  set in all places.  It starts in the home.  Parents are facing challenges.  Parents have an opportunity to spend time with   kids  and learn about the media they're consuming.  The only advice out there is to limit screen time. He suggests   developing a dialogue with your child about media.   

• Media literacy and creation skills can't be add-ons in schools, but have to be integrated across the curriculum in all subjects.

• Dr. Mizuko Ito made the point that digital learning is happening primarily outside fo the classroom and in more of a social and play context.  "We know very little about the learning that is happening outside of classrooms."  She mentioned that  learning is being initiated by young people on their own terms and by having a better understanding of these online  environments, it will give some hints about how to harness the technology for formal learning in the classroom.

• Jenkins from MIT described something called "convergence culture."  He used the example of Harry Potter books - not just reading them, but young people working on collaborative writing projects via the Web -- writing and getting feedback from peers around the world.  He also described the educational projects in Second Life where young people are constructing their  own worlds and are teaching other programming skills as well as social, economic, and cultural interaction. "What are the  things that kids need to know to be rich participants in these spaces?"

• Dr. Mizuko described some findings in their research about informal learning and using games, even simple games like card trading games. "It is important to recongize that these are complex learning environments and information systems. The design of media is for more activist and personal interaction.  We need to understand the properties of how knowledge is  exchanged and developed in these peer-based online networks.  There is no question that these are robust learning  environments."

Dr. Nichole Pinkard identified three implications:
-rethink what we mean by learning environments
"Learning is happening outside of school and in informal ways."
-rethink who are educators - who do kids learn from - not just adults
"Kids are learning from each other."
-rethink what counts as traditional forms of evidence of learning
"All our kids have laptops, when we go to museum - kids take their laptops and cameras with them.  They focus on the media  creation of what they learned.  They document their learning."

Later in the conversation, it was noted that change will come, but slowly.

It was opened up for question and answer both in New York and in Second Life. I'm picking out two questions that were interesting to me.

• Someone from PBS asked a question about how TV might be part of the future of the world that was being envisioned?  Jenkins answered, "What does the next generation of Blues Clues look like?  How does social networking/web2.0 get embedded in PBS programming?  It has to be governed by Web2.0 - kids will be making media.  It can't just teach them to think about media, but making it on your own terms."   Media literacy is a paradigm shift - not an add-in subject.

The other question was about mult-tasking and how it impacted learning experience. 

• Dr. Mizuko mentioned some research they were doing on continuous partial attention of young people's media and mobile phone use.  "Kids are inhabiting multiple  worlds with 26 IRC and IM windows open.  She alluded to the upside and downside to continuous partial attention.

This inspired quite a lot of comments in the backchannel chat on Second Life.

• yes, getting people to really concentrate on one thing, and think deeply about it
• That sounds like me right now
• I don't think that "inhabiting multiple worlds" is the same as multitasking.
• I think sdhe meant that they have these many windows open all simultaneously on the screen
• Is multitasking is a myth? It seems more like rapid attention shifting
• Lstening to one conversation while talking about the same conversation in a separate space counts as multi-tasking to me
• It crosses devices and time and not just one screen is the reality Rapid attention shifting is not the same as continuous partial attention, in my view.
• We are having a conversation here, listening to this presentation, and I for one am exploring linkspeople have posted all relatively simultaneously, is that multitasking?
• Is there any literature on that conceptual distinction? Very interesting...
• This chat is gettign pretty good! Love the backchannel!!
• I think that rapid attention shifting is one way of thinking about "critical thinking"
• This is a very interesting discussion about multitasking. What are the NY folks talking about.
• But isn't rapid attention shifting one mode of sophisticated and responsive awareness?Nothing wrong with it (imo) - just v. different than what goes on in many schools now
• I have a piece in the Sept./Oct. Change magazine that tries to get at it ... clumsily at times. :)

META REFLECTION as it Relates to Nonprofits:

-One of the points mentions that this is a new field - digital learning and media and that it was a cross disciplinary field.  Given all this potential change in education, what do we need to think about how all this applies to nonprofit sector?  How does media creation and social networking skills change the way we work in nonprofits?   

Other links:

MacArthur Foundation Digital Learning and Media Site

Press Release for the Event (Blog post about the PR aspect)

NMC Consortium Summary

NMC Flickr Photos

Gary Hayes photos in flickr
In Kenzo's notes

The event was streamed into Global Kids Teen Grid
Here's what the kids has to say and photos

Special Geek Link: The Technical Setup

Check out my flickr photos of the event and my desktop

Comments

[Murray McArdle]

Thanks for summarizing! I'm new to the SLED list, where I learned about this event after the fact. Looked like a lot of multi-tasking just to talk about multi-tasking! Thx Beth.

[evonne]

Beth, awesome blog! I found out quite randomly that my new housemate RL was housesitting for Dr. Mizuko two weeks ago and had just invited her to our home thinking that we should meet. ;-)

Small worlds. Thanks for all you do.

[Rallyfan]

Beth, wow. A co-worker and I have been having numerous discussions about the application of SL and how we might make the case to be involved. Needless to say, this post has me salivating. There have been numerous studies in the past about the value of play in the learning context. Taking the play to the digital realm is the transition that we all find ourselves in now. One concern that inevitably comes up in a discussion like this (so why not start it now) is the divide between the "haves" and the "have-nots". Does that gap eventually widen if we do not find a way to provide digital access to everyone on an even playing field? And is that even realistic?

Thank you for posting about this briefing.

[Marc Sirkin]

Beth,
I listened for over an hour. Nice summary!

Felt at times like duhhhhhh... but then again, I bought myself a new house today for less than L$1000 :)

As for the have/have not thing from Rallyfan - I saw some research (no idea of source) at the Games for Health conference that showed lower income families typically have a PS2/Xbox - and many are already connected. The numbers were staggering - something like 70+%. I'll try to find the source.

[Barry]

Thanks Beth. Global Kids was both at the event in NYC, as a recipient, and streamed the feed into the teen grid as well. If anyone would like to read what the teens had to say, please check out:
http://www.holymeatballs.org/2006/10/hmds_macarthur_foundation_50m.html
Barry

[Steve Sherock]

Thanks for the summary Beth, an exciting event with plenty of food for thought.

[Nedra Weinreich]

Thanks for sharing this, Beth. Both the process and content were fascinating!

[purdew205]

Wow! As a future teacher this article was amazing. I'm currently in an online class where we're doing a lot of learning about digital media and technology in schools (infact thats the subject of the class.) I trying to think of how this same type of conference thing can be done with student from different locations instead of just teachers. I didn't really know that this stuff was out there. Thanks for sharing!

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